LOGINViolet's POVI found Rhoswen in the corridor near his own room, already half dressed, an alarm written across his face the second he saw me running toward him."Violet, what are you doing out of your room—""It's Lucian." I grabbed his arm, my breath coming in gasps, my whole body still shaking from the cold and everything I'd just seen. "He's chained, he's bleeding everywhere, there's blood all over the floor, you have to come, please."Rhoswen's face went pale within seconds, all his usual easiness gone at once. "Shit!" He cursed out, “ show me.”I led him back the way I'd come, down the same corridor, past the garden archway, down the narrow stairs two at a time, Vex was nowhere in sight anymore, though I didn't stop to wonder about that. My mind was too full of what I was about to show him."How did you even find that room?" Rhoswen asked as we descended the stairs, his voice tight."Vex led me there." I didn't slow down. "He woke me up. I don't know how he got into my room even w
Violet's POV“What,” he said, his voice suddenly quieter than it had been all night, “are you?”"I don't know." My voice came out smaller than I meant it to. "I don't know what I am."Lucian's eyes stayed fixed on mine, the black in them still cracked open just enough to let something through that looked almost like him."When you touched the chain." He forced the sentence out slowly, each word visibly costing him something. "What did you do to me?""Nothing." I hadn't let go yet, my fingers still wrapped around the iron, still slick with his blood. "I didn't do anything, I swear.""Something happened when you touched it." His jaw was tight, his whole body still straining against the restraints even as he held himself together to speak. "I felt it move through me."Vex slid closer along the wall, his head lifted toward us, watching without moving any nearer to the blood pool."I felt something too." I looked down at my own hand, half expecting to see it glowing or marked somehow. It l
Violet’s POVI kicked out hard the moment I felt it, something cold and heavy sliding against my ankle in the dark. I gasped when my foot connected with nothing but air, the thing already gone from where it had been.For one long second I couldn't move at all.When I finally forced myself to sit up and look, a snake lay coiled at the foot of my bed, thick as my own arm, its scales black and oil-slick even in the dark.My scream got stuck somewhere in my throat.I scrambled backward until my spine hit the headboard, my whole body shaking. This wasn't Sable's snake. I remembered that one clearly, sickly yellow-green, thin and mean. This one was bigger, heavier, and its head lifted slowly off the mattress to look at me directly."How did you get in here?" My voice came out barely above a whisper. "The door was locked."The snake didn't answer, obviously, but its tongue flicked out toward me and I noticed, through the fear, that it hadn't moved any closer since I'd woken. It was jus
Violet's POVI woke up to sunlight pressing warm against my eyelids, and something felt wrong before I even opened them.There was no throb in my knees when I shifted under the blanket. No pull at my throat when I turned my head.I sat up and pulled back the blanket, staring down at my legs in the morning light. The skin where the stone had torn me open the day before was pale and whole, not even the faint pink line a healing wound usually left behind. I pressed two fingers against the spot where the deepest scrape had been. Yet I got nothing, like my body had simply erased what happened.My hand went to my throat next, fingers searching along my collarbone for the edge of a bandage and it wasn't there. My skin was smooth and unharmed.I sat frozen for a moment, running my fingers over and over the place where his teeth had been, unable to make sense of what I wasn't feeling.A knock startled me out of it."You're awake." Rhoswen leaned in the doorway when I opened it, one shoulder
Lucian's POVI stood over her while the healer finished wrapping the wound, candlelight throwing both our shadows long across the stone.Violet didn't stir. Her breathing had evened out an hour ago, though it still came shallow, too fast for sleep.The healer tied off the bandage and rose to her feet, not quite meeting my eyes. "The bleeding has stopped, my lord. She'll wake within an hour.""Leave us.""Yes, my lord."The door clicked shut behind her, and the candle flames near it guttered once in the draft before steadying.I stood there a moment, then spoke to the empty room."I know you're here." My eyes remained fixed on Violet. "Come out, Kellan."He didn't answer at first. I watched the candles dim, all of them at once, the flames shrinking to blue at their centers though no wind moved through the room.Then the shadows near the hearth thickened, folding in on themselves until they took his shape. Kellan didn't speak right away. He walked towards me slowly, his boots making no
Violet's POV"Please...!" I cried, stumbling as Lord Blackthorne dragged me across the rough stone corridor without slowing his pace. "Please, you're hurting me!"My fingers clawed helplessly at the hand gripping my arm, but it was like trying to pry apart iron.The cold stone scraped against my bare feet. Every time I lost my balance, my knees slammed against the floor before he dragged me forward again.Sharp pain shot through my body as the rough ground tore at my skin, leaving burning scratches across my legs. My palms stung where I'd tried to catch myself, small stones biting into the torn skin."I wasn't trying to run," I sobbed, struggling to keep up with his long strides. "I swear I wasn't. She told me to find your chambers myself. I got lost."He didn't answer.His broad shoulders remained stiff as he continued walking, his black coat billowing behind him. The torches along the walls blurred past, one after another, until I lost count of how many corridors we'd crossed."Plea